The Fatal Cord Part 36

The shot was immediately returned; it was fired by Captain Johnson's own hand. The ball pa.s.sed through the guards and swept across the deck of the _Falcon_, killing one man, and wounding two more by the splinters which it tore from the timbers through which it had forced its way. The loud peal of the cannon had not died away, when another shot from the _d.u.c.h.ess_ came almost upon its track, again killing one and wounding two more.

"This will never do, Mr Bowsprit," said Captain Vance. "Is your gun loaded again?"

"Yes, sir," was the reply.

"Let me manage her this time," said the captain.

His shot was well aimed; it struck the guards of the _d.u.c.h.ess_, scattering the splinters far and wide.

"I'll guarantee that did them some damage," remarked Captain Vance.

Scarcely had he spoken, when two cannon-shots came in quick succession from the _d.u.c.h.ess_. The one struck the deck of the _Falcon_, tearing up the splinters; the other again struck the guards, scattering fragments of timber. One sailor was killed directly beside Captain Vance; three others were slightly wounded.

"Furies!" exclaimed the pirate chief, "that fellow knows his business.

But this will never do. Give them a volley of musketry."

The loud roar of the Long Tom, and the rattling peal of the muskets immediately blended into one tremendous sound. That sound was instantly echoed from on board the ship; two cannon-shots and a dozen musket-loads again poured devastation upon the deck of the brig.

"We must come to close quarters," exclaimed the pirate chief; "we are fast losing the advantage of superior numbers. The terrible skill of that devil with his cannon is destroying our superiority in that respect. Give me a loaded musket."

He waited until a partial lifting of the smoke-cloud gave him a glimpse of the stout, manly figure of Captain Johnson, then, in an instant, taking aim, he fired. The ceaseless motion of the vessels destroyed the effect of his aim; and the man who was fired at escaped unharmed.

"Pistols and cutla.s.ses!" exclaimed Vance, much excited. "Prepare to board. Forward with your men, Captain Coe. Helmsman, put us alongside of that vessel at once."

"That's the way to talk," said Afton. "We'll give the whelps no mercy now."

"We may sink both vessels by collision," said Seacome, "in such a sea as this."

"Then let them sink," cried the pirate chief, all of whose evil pa.s.sions were now aroused. "Lay us aboard quickly, helmsman."

The helmsman did his work skilfully; the starboard-bow of the brig was brought to bear gradually towards the larboard bow of the ship; and the two vessels approached each other in such a manner that their sides when they touched formed, at the point of contact, a very acute angle. The guards of the ship were above those of the brig; yet grappling-irons were cast from the latter and the vessels were made fast together. But the independent rolling and pitching of each of them, which caused them sometimes to "yaw" asunder, sometimes to come together with a crash that sounded like thunder, made the pa.s.sage from one to the other very dangerous.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE BOARDING ATTACK.

Together they came with a crashing and rending, While the sounds of the battle and tempest were blending.

_The Lost Ship_.

We will be true to you, most n.o.ble sir.

_Avator_.

Oh, spare my daughter! Take my wealth--I care not; But spare my daughter.

_Old Play_.

Villain, forbear!

Throw down your arms--surrender.

_The a.s.sault_.

The last fire from the _Falcon_ had made sad havoc among the crew of the merchant vessel; two men were killed and three badly wounded by it.

Hence it was that, when the pirates were thronging the brig's side, preparing to spring on board the ship, Captain Johnson had but nine men to aid him in resisting the a.s.sault, the tenth being at the wheel. The odds were fearfully against him, being more than three to one; the pirate chief, leaving ten men to take care of the brig, had still thirty-one men, besides those who had been placed _hors de combat_, with whom to board the ship.

While John Coe was standing by the starboard guards of the brig, prepared to spring on board of the ship, with every nerve wrought up to its highest tension, he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed prayers to the Almighty to guard him from sin and guide him to goodness in this terrible crisis of his fate.

Just as the vessels were coming together, he felt his arm touched, and turning, saw Ada by his side.

"For heaven's sake, madam," he said, in low but earnest tones, "what are you doing here? Do go into the cabin and seek out its safest corner.

You are almost certain to lose your life here. This is no place for a helpless woman."

"How can I stay there," she said, "while these horrible scenes are taking place? I am inured to danger, and put no value on my life.

Besides, I feel impelled by a power within me, and which I cannot resist, to take part in the scenes about to occur on board of that ship.

I put myself by your side, both because my husband would drive me away from his, and because, of all who are about to board that vessel, you alone have no evil in your heart, but are seeking to prevent it; and I wish to aid you in that good work. See! I also am armed."

She showed a cutla.s.s in her hand, and pointed to two double-barrelled pistols in a belt round her waist.

"Keep closely by my side, then," said John, seeing her determination.

"I will do all that I can to protect you."

"Thank you," she replied.

John turned towards his other side; there, near to him, stood Billy Bowsprit.

"Bowsprit," he said, in a low voice, "keep near to me; and do not forget your pledge to give all the aid in your power to prevent, to such extent as we can, the shedding of innocent blood."

"Mr Coe," answered Billy, earnestly and emphatically, yet in a whisper, "I am with you, heart and hand, I am yours in life and death."

"And see, too," said Coe, in the same low tones, "that the five men of my band, who are with us, keep near to us, and that you and they follow me wherever I go."

"They are here, sir," whispered Billy, "just behind you and me. Every man of them can be relied on; they are all devoted to you."

"And you and they," replied John, still in the same undertones, "may depend upon my fulfilling my promise, should I escape with life and freedom from the perils of this night."

Thus the thirty men of the _Falcon's_ crew detailed for the boarding-party, stood by the guards of the brig upon that side of her towards the ship, waiting for the moment when the upheaving and subsidence of the waters should uplift the former and depress the latter, that they might seize the opportunity to leap down upon the deck of the _d.u.c.h.ess_.

Captain Johnson was also waiting for the same moment. He had stationed eight men each with a cutla.s.s in his right hand and a pistol in his left, in a position to meet the pirates should they gain his deck. He had so carefully balanced and trained his two guns that, when they should be fired, the b.a.l.l.s would come together at a short distance from the muzzles of the cannon. By one of these guns stood Captain Johnson himself, by the other one of his mates, upon whose coolness he could thoroughly depend. Each of these two resolute men held a lighted match in his hand.

By this time the sun had been half an hour below the horizon, and the short twilight of that southern lat.i.tude was fast darkening into a night of storm and of unusual gloom; for although there was one clear spot in the western sky, all the rest of the face of heaven was veiled in heavy clouds.

In his anxiety to gain as soon as possible the deck of the ship, Captain Vance had not noted all the dispositions made on board the _d.u.c.h.ess_; his attention had been given mainly to the ordering of his own men, and to the eight men arranged for the reception of his a.s.saulting party.

The critical moment, upon the results of which so much of vital importance to the combatants depended, arrived. The brig rose high upon the summit of a huge billow, while the merchant ship descended into the valley between that and another monster wave. At that instant the pirates sprung towards the deck of the _d.u.c.h.ess_, the eight men of the latter, who had been placed to meet this a.s.sault, fired their pistols, and Captain Johnson and his mate applied the matches to the cannon.

Three of the pirates fell upon the ship's deck, two killed and one mortally wounded by the pistol-shots of their enemies; five made the leap too late, of whom two were crushed between the vessels, and fell into the sea, and three struck against the guards of the now rising ship, and were thrown back with violence upon their own deck. Captain Vance himself received a pistol-shot through the brain at the moment when he was about to spring from the guards of the _Falcon_ to the deck of the _d.u.c.h.ess_; he disappeared between the two vessels and sunk into the sea.

John Coe--to avoid confronting the eight defenders of the ship--had taken his station with Ada, Billy Bowsprit, and the rest of the small party devoted to him, on the extreme left of the boarding-line of pirates. The next officer on his right was Lieutenant Afton, who was separated from him, however, by several men. At the extreme right of the whole line had been Captain Vance; Lieutenant Seacome being left in charge of the brig.

Thus, when young Coe, holding Ada by the hand, alighted on the deck of the _d.u.c.h.ess_, he found the second-lieutenant of the _Falcon_--with a party of five men under his immediate command--between himself and the defenders of the ship. He saw the wretch Afton, ever intent upon spoil--after making, with all the a.s.saulting party to his right, a rush against the ship's crew, which forced the latter to give back a s.p.a.ce-- detach himself with four men from the rest of the pirates, and, crossing the deck, hurry along the starboard side of the ship towards the entrance to the cabin.